Excellent point about the mind of the storyteller, which was, no doubt, a train wreck when it came to having any perspective! I think Camilla may have had to go to extremes to hold her own with Arturo ~ otherwise he would've taken his own behavior to extremes. She kept him in check, in a way, and let me know she had a few distorted tricks of her own to play on him.
Such a lovely couple.

They both definitley had some issues going on with relationships. Camilla was in another relationship at the time wasn't she? With the bartender?

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
Wow! What a ride!

Yes, Camilla was supposedly in love with the bartender throughout the story, right? It was a case of unrequieted love, which makes me think she wasn't that attracted to Arturo. Rather, she saw him as someone she could mess with and possibly punish. It seemed like a lot of the time she was trying to get a reaction out of Arturo since she couldn't get a reaction out of the guy she really wanted to.